Pilot A1 – Sonde – Massachusetts AI & Technology Center

Poster Presentation: Military Health System Research Symposium (MHSRS) 2024

Post category:Pilot A1 - Sonde
Post published:August 23, 2024

Title: Enhancing Mental and Cognitive Fitness Monitoring via Vocal Biomarkers: Applications for Military Personnel Authors: Erik Larsen, Olivia Murton, Xinyu Song, Dale Joachim, Lindsey Venesky, Sam Murdock, Bonnie Wong, Brad Dickerson Abstract: Maintaining the mental and cognitive fitness of military personnel is critical to ensuring peak operational readiness. Traditional methods like self-reported questionnaires and clinical interviews are often hindered by subjectivity, time constraints, and the stigma surrounding mental health. Vocal biomarkers offer a breakthrough, enabling an unobtrusive, secure, and real-time assessment of mental and cognitive states using readily available smart devices. Our research validates the effectiveness of vocal biomarkers in remotely monitoring mental and cognitive shifts, including those associated with depression, anxiety, PTSD, and cognitive impairment, as well as real-time cognitive effort. This technology, deployable across consumer electronics and wearables without the need for network…

New Product Versions: Sonde Health Introduces Innovative Cognitive Fitness Health Tracking Solution

Post category:Events Pilot A1 - Sonde
Post published:July 30, 2024

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sonde Health is expanding its leading health monitoring platform beyond mental and respiratory fitness by introducing an innovative cognitive fitness tracker that allows users to monitor brain exertion, or cognitive effort, in real time. This new solution, called Sonde Cognitive Fitness, analyzes eight vocal characteristics from 30-second voice interactions and generates a score to provide insight into one’s cognitive state, helping people manage their mental well-being and productivity effectively. By tracking their cognitive fitness, individuals can identify and monitor cognitive effort levels, take steps to optimize their productivity and performance, and enhance their well-being by reducing cognitive strain. Sonde Cognitive Fitness launches as almost one in five people over age 50 worldwide is affected by mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and more than 55 million people worldwide are living with dementia — a figure that's projected to nearly triple by 2050. In early July, the U.S. Food…

Oral Presentation: Novel Technological Approaches for Detection of Cognitive and Functional Impairment

Post category:Pilot A1 - Sonde Pilot A9 - Rendever Pilot B5 - Impairment Science
Post published:March 11, 2024

This is part of the monthly MassAITC webinar series. Abstract: This webinar explored cutting-edge technologies aimed at improving early detection and monitoring of cognitive and functional impairments in older adults. Dr. Kate Papp (Mass General Brigham) opened the session by highlighting the challenges of traditional clinical assessments—lengthy, labor-intensive, and inaccessible to many—and the promise of scalable, remote, and ecologically valid digital tools to address the growing needs of an aging population. Three MassAITC pilot awardees presented innovative approaches: Dr. Eric Larson (Sonde Health) discussed testing a vocal biomarker platform that leverages AI to detect and monitor cognitive impairment via smartphone-based voice samples collected in home environments. Early findings show high participant engagement and promising accuracy in distinguishing cognitive status. Dr. Jennifer Stamps (Rendever) shared progress on a multimodal virtual reality (VR) fitness platform that combines physical exercise,…

New Product Versions: Sonde One app (vocal biomarker research platform)

Post category:Events Pilot A1 - Sonde
Post published:February 11, 2024

Sonde One app (vocal biomarker research platform) has incorporated two new capabilities whose development was funded through this pilot project (Mobile Monitoring of Cognitive Change "M2C2" mobile cognitive assessments and audio playback functionality). Sonde already makes it research platform available to collaborators in other studies and these upgraded functionalities will be made available to interested researchers.